Spring-Ford, North Wales students compete in Maglev Train race

Students watch as a model train makes a trip down an inclined ramp in a classroom at North Wales Elementary School during a competition with a class in the Spring-Ford School District networked via Skype Monday, Jan. 27, 2014. (Photo by Geoff Patton/The Reporter)

During a science unit on magnets and motors, sixth-grade students at North Wales Elementary School research and construct their own magnetic levitation trains, often referred to as Maglev Trains. They got the chance to race those trains against seventh-grade students from the Spring-Ford Area School District on Monday morning via Skype.

Derek Fickert, who teaches sixth-grade at North Wales, came up with the idea for the project three years ago with the help of his older brother Ian, who teaches technology at Spring-Ford. The students at each school split into groups of four or five, Fickert said. Since December, they’ve been researching Maglev Trains.

Maglev Trains use extremely powerful electromagnets to keep them “floating” a few inches from the tracks, Fickert said. They travel at an average of 310 mph.

A handful of countries have already built Maglev Trains, and the United States has been considering building its own line from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Fickert said. The project would cost $8 billion, he said, half of which would be loaned to the U.S. by Japan.

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Each group of students had to come up with its own route that would stop in three cities between New York City and San Francisco, Fickert said. They could choose any three cities with a population of at least 500,000. The students also had to calculate how much the train route would cost.

Each group presented its research and idea to the class last week, Fickert said, and the best two teams got to present on Monday morning, when the North Wales and Spring-Ford students were connected via Skype. Next, three of the best Spring-Ford groups presented their ideas.

In addition to researching Maglev Trains, each group of students was also tasked with building its own model Maglev Train. They were given blocks of Styrofoam and could design the train any way they wanted, Fickert said, as long as they used at least half of the Styrofoam.

Both schools used identical blocks of Styrofoam, Fickert said, as well as identical racing tracks, which were a few feet long and propped at an angle.

“When we built the track, we laid them out right next to each other,” he said. Instead of being powered by electromagnets, like real Maglev Trains, the models were equipped with permanent magnets, which kept them hovering about an inch off of the track.

Again, the three best models from each school were chosen to compete, Fickert said. The trains were raced five times each and the times were averaged to get the final score. The winning train came from Spring-Ford, with a time of 3.23 seconds. Second place went to a North Wales train, which had an average race time of 3.28 seconds.

Following the race, the students debated whether or not the United States should build the proposed maglev train from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, similar to the debate that the U.S. government would need to have before a maglev train could actually be built, Fickert said. The Spring-Ford team argued that the Maglev Train should be built, while the North Wales students listed all the reasons it should not.

The Spring-Ford students argued that Maglev Trains are fast — they could travel the 37 miles from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore in about 15 minutes — efficient and good for the environment, as they run without any fossil fuels. They believe that many commuters would take advantage of the easy commute.

The North Wales students argued that the construction for the trains, which could take up to 20 years to complete, would damage the environment. The new way to travel would threaten other forms of mass transportation, such as airplanes or regular trains, and would therefore take away many jobs, they said. They also pointed out that the Maglev Train has a price tag of $8 billion; even if the U.S. borrowed half of the money from Japan, they would have to pay it back eventually, with interest.

Fickert said that the debate would continue in their classrooms throughout the next week.

Each year, the students seem to really enjoy the project, he said.

“Science, sometimes for some students, can be a pretty difficult subject to enjoy. This project is very hands-on and incorporates a lot of different elements: the research, the building, the painting.”

For next year’s race, Fickert would like to add certain elements to the competition.

“One of my goals is creating some sort of lighting system and getting solar panels involved,” he said.

They’ve also talked about adding an electronic timing system to eliminate any human error.